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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818552">Wounded but Still Unbroken</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/pseuds/Fairfaxleasee'>Fairfaxleasee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Andromeda Six (Visual Novel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abuse, Autism Spectrum, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Panic Attacks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:54:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,360</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818552</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/pseuds/Fairfaxleasee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>At the palace, Vexx tries to console a distraught Traveler.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Vexx Serif/Traveler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wounded but Still Unbroken</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cassandra tensed as she heard the door open, scratching her nails over the table in front of her hard enough to crack one.  She assumed it was her father again, taking time out of his oh-so-busy schedule to berate her for having stumbled upon the most inconvenient way possible to exist, remind her that all she had to do was show up when she was told to, look pretty, and act normal and that somehow she managed to fail at all three of those things every time.  With the engagement of her older brother...One-Of-Them; Cassandra tried to remember which One-Of-Them it was.  Something with an “S”?  Sauron?  Saturninus?  Sycophant?  Sure, Sycophant worked, although it was a lateral move from One-Of-Them.  At some point nine of Cassandra’s ten siblings had merged into a kind of collective identity to her, there was no point in trying to distinguish them when they all thought the same, all acted the same, all treated her the same, all in every way she could see that mattered were the same-she was “That One” to them, they were “One-Of-Them” to her, it was fair.   With him engaged, Cassandra was now the only one of her siblings not engaged or married which had only intensified her father’s desire to “fix” her.  To force her, one way or another, into a mold she didn’t understand so she could perform in a role she didn’t want. <br/>“After all,” she could see him in front of her now, face twisted with a level of contempt and disgust that was reserved especially for her, “who the hell has any use for a fat, broken princess?”</p><p>“Give up on the other one already?  Cass, you okay?”</p><p>Part of her wanted to just drop all the exhausting pretense and tell Vexx just how not okay she was.  How she had no idea what ‘okay’ even was beyond knowing it was something she had never been, how she seemed to get less of it every day, and how she knew that as long as she was living in what was, quite literally, her father’s system, it was never something she was going to be.</p><p>But there was no point.  It’s not like he, or anyone else, can do anything about it.  Just a matter of doing what everyone else is doing and waiting for the fucking bastard to have the common courtesy of dying and putting everyone out of his misery.</p><p>“Nope, finished it this morning.  I’m pretty good at these things when people don’t go around messing with my pieces.”</p><p>Cassandra glanced back at the jigsaw puzzle laid out in front of her and scowled.  She never had the pieces organized in any deliberate way but could always somehow tell when Vexx had been at them, like now.</p><p>Vexx was currently holding a piece that was clearly part of the tabby cat in the foreground of the picture-it had an eye on it for fuck’s sake-in an area where the leaves that filled in the background would go.  He saw her glaring at him and smirked while starting to try and put the piece in at all the wrong angles.</p><p>“Well, I personally think I do an amazing job helping you on these puzzles…”</p><p>He dropped the piece he had been using where it clearly didn’t belong and picked up one with roses and started trying to place it into the cat’s area of the puzzle.</p><p>“You didn’t answer the important question; are you okay?”</p><p>Cassandra snatched the offending piece out of Vexx’s hand before he could get it wrong one more time.  She knew he was baiting her, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she took the bait, but that didn’t mean she was going to make this easy.</p><p>“You mean aside from the giant, red-haired, idiot, soon-to-be-ex-Royal-Guard-if-he-keeps-this-shit-up, jerk-face asshole who keeps trying to assassinate my puzzles?”</p><p>Cassandra snapped both the pieces Vexx had been messing with into their rightful homes.</p><p>“You wound me, Princess!  I think I have a lovely face.”</p><p>Vexx reached out and gently took her hand.  She flinched at the contact like she always did but he waited until she relaxed before working his way down her fingers to examine the small pools of blood that had formed around the bed of the nail she had cracked earlier.  Then he turned her hand over so her palm faced up and tightened his grip over her hand while he placed his other around her forearm so all it would take was a tiny flicker of movement for him to push her sleeve up to her elbow.</p><p>Cassandra swallowed and tried to set her face into the impassive mask she knew she never got quite right.  She knew what he would find if he moved her sleeve, knew that the only reason he hadn’t moved it was because he knew what she hid there too.</p><p>“Cassandra, are you okay?”</p><p>“I am as okay as I am ever like to be.”</p><p>Vexx’s face twisted with something Cassandra couldn’t quite place, not that that was saying much, Cassandra had trouble with emotions and faces.  She cocked her head to one side to put up a perfunctory reaction.</p><p>“Cass, I’m a Royal Guard, it’s my job to protect you…”</p><p>“THEN WHY DON’T YOU FUCKING TRY AND PROTECT ME FROM WHAT WE BOTH KNOW I NEED PROTECTION FROM?!”</p><p>The words exploded from Cassandra’s mouth with a passion and urgency that scared her.  She ripped her hand from his grip and went back to the table.  She couldn’t see the puzzle through the mist of tears that threatened to fall, but she needed something to lean on and thought she might still be present enough to get some relief from worrying one of the pieces in her hand before she would be forced to turn her anxiety on its more common target.</p><p>She felt Vexx’s hand on her shoulder.  His light touch was gone quickly, a warning to her that he was going to touch her skin again so she wouldn’t immediately panic at the contact.  He grabbed the base of her neck where it met her shoulders and pressed down.  The pressure on her supraclavicular nerve was an immediate relief and allowed her to actually breathe again.  Not comfortably yet, but hopefully soon.  She wasn’t sure how long they stood there, Vexx’s grip tightening and loosening with her breathing, but once she could distinguish the individual pieces of the puzzle in front of her, she raised her hand and Vexx immediately let go and backed away.</p><p>“I’m sorry…”</p><p>Her breathing wasn’t quite stable enough for her to be able to talk normally, but they both knew she was lucky to be talking at all this soon after an episode like that.</p><p>“You didn’t...didn’t deserve that...it’s not your fault...and it’s not something anyone can fix.  It’s just...what it is.”</p><p>Vexx grabbed her in a tight embrace.  Cassandra didn’t understand why he was doing it, didn’t understand why she was letting him, and didn’t understand why it was causing such immense relief or transcendent euphoria, but she knew she didn’t want him to let go.</p><p>She also knew she had to tell him something that was probably going to make him.  But she couldn’t stop herself from gripping his shoulder blades to try and keep him there.</p><p>“My father’s right, I’m broken, Vexx.  You should just leave and forget about me.”</p><p>Cassandra was sure he would let go and walk out, leave her there in pieces just like the puzzle.  Instead he squeezed her tighter and whispered to her.</p><p>“Even if I do leave, I will never forget about you.  And you are not broken.  But they want you to be, that’s why they try so hard to make you believe it, and make sure to keep you wounded.”</p><p>She buried her face in his shoulder as the tears started to flow again.</p><p>“And Cass…”</p><p>He shifted, gently nudging her head back so he could lift her chin and bring her to meet his eyes.</p><p>“I don’t think there’s anything anyone could do that could break you.”</p>
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